After a whirlwind trip to Bangkok (the fruit of which can be seen here), I’m finally back and sorta rested in Tokyo. As usual, lots of great songs appeared online while I was busy wandering the streets of Thailand’s capital, and here are a handful of them.
– Yesterday Once More continues to shine, with the imprint’s head creator Shigge sharing a new song called “Nobody” last week. The first layer to approaching this song is figuring out where he took his sample from — but really, that game is not necessary, as the second layer is just as good. “Nobody” is a woozy number, not quite deserted but certainly hinting at a little loneliness (repeating the titular word in various pitch shifts will do that). But it does let some moments of energy sneak in. Listen above.
– One of the bigger indie releases of the summer is going to be Beef Fantasy’s Virtua Beach EP, which he has been teasing throughout the warmer months on his Twitter. The mysterious but extremely good producer Pasocom Music Club guests on that…but before it arrives, said creator shared a new song called “Hana Haku.” It features synthesized choruses and a smattering of woozy synthesizer, but like Pasocom Music Club’s previous songs, the energy they squeeze out of it is the real star. Listen below.
– The Think-Chan project started about a month ago and, like Pasocom Music Club, not a ton of details are around. But latest track “Iro-oni” is the first to really leave an impression, a jittery bit of sped-up wonder, featuring some prominent Jersey Club flavoring. It’s high energy, but also extremely sweet. Listen below.
– Rap outfit Itadaqi return with a blurry cut that is most certainly not chasing J-pop status. And it fits them wonderfully, down to a chorus loaded-up with longing…and made all the stronger thanks to some well-timed sax bleats. Considering how much Japanese rap this year…errr, well, the type we cover here at least…leans towards the energetic and positive, this is a nice change of pace. Listen below.
– The beauty of a post format such as this one, is I can sneak in songs that came out a long time ago, and be alright! Producer 3tos teamed up with singer keaLKO for the house-pop number “Everything’s Nice,” which came out a while back. But it’s worth checking out now — this whole brand of U.K. style house-pop is fading from fashion, but 3tos’ version is far more shifty than the post-Disclosure rush of artists nominally aware of garage were. And I’m always here for vocal pitch-shifting like this! Listen below.